If I were a fantasy football geek (and I’m not) Miami Dolphins tailbacks Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams would be reasonably high on my list of players to draft.

Both have shown they can be effective runners who produce 1,000 yard seasons, but that’s not the reason why they might be big stat producers in 2010. The way Chad Henne’s been throwing plenty of checkdown passes during the first three practices of this weekend’s minicamp makes me conclude the tailbacks have a good shot of leading the team in receptions in 2010.

Dump down passes to the backs have been Henne’s favorite throw.

In fairness to Henne, the first-team defense isn’t blitzing, so they are playing A LOT of shell coverage, keeping everything underneath. Smart quarterbacks take what a defense gives them, so Henne’s being smart.

But there have been opportunities to go down field to receivers and tight ends during the three practices Miami’s had, and Henne is NOT taking them.

I’ve covered football for a while, and so I know there are things coaches specifically want players to do during drills, days, minicamps, seasons. We usually don’t know those things. Maybe Henne was instructed to throw to the tailbacks because he sparingly did it last season. I don’t know.

But I do know 7-on-7 drills isn’t the time to be throwing checkdown passes. It’s the time to challenge a defensive back and a secondary by showing off the arm, and that’s rarely being done by the Dolphins’ starting quarterback.

And before you folks start stoning me to death because I’m sharing an observation, let me confess what I say all the time: Yes I dislike quarterbacks (it’s my defensive mentality), and no I don’t dislike Henne. I think he can be a fine NFL starter, but needs more development (touch passes, reading the field), and needs to become a better leader, which he’s clearly working on.

“Chad (Henne) right now knows this is his huddle and there’s a little bit different swagger from him,” coach Tony Sparano said of his starting quarterback.

Dolphins fans better hope swagger equals to more wins….

Here’s everything you need to know about Saturday’s morning session, which only the elites of sponsors and the media got to attend….

Even though Davone Bess is primarily working in the slot while Greg Camarillo and Brian Hartline serve as the starters, Sparano said the “next best guy” will line up as the starter opposite Brandon Marshall, who the coaches plan to move around regularly.

Sparano praised rookie strong safety Jonathan Amaya for the knack of him finding the ball. He’s had two interceptions during minicamp. One in Friday’s afternoon session, and one Saturday morning.

Sparano says Amaya made those type of playing in rookie camp too, and points out the one thing he liked about Amaya from his college film is the fact he’s “a hitter.”….

LG John Jerry, C Jake Grove and RG Richie Incognito are back to working as the starting interior O-line. I’m betting the second-team O-line gets promoted in the afternoon.

Sparano said it’s significant that Jerry is taking snaps with the first team, but admitted the game has got to slow down a bit for the former Ole Miss standout. Sparano said each day he is seeing Jerry do something a little better, and that’s been pleasing…..

Sparano said QB Pat White has gained 18 pounds since he’s shown up as a rookie, and lost body fat in the process….

LBer Brian Johnston had an excused absence for Saturday’s practice….

DE Lionel Dotson, who has missed all of the team’s minicamp work, has a neck and shoulder injury he’s nursing…..

Charlie Anderson and Koa Misi have consistently worked as the starting outside linebackers during minicamp. Sparano said he has a good feeling on whether Anderson can be as an NFL starter, but he needs more of a sample size to understand what his body of work can be over a prolonged period….

Cameron Wake continues to work with the second team outside linebacker, but he does get elevated to the starting unit in the nickel and dime packages. Wake smoked Richie Incognito so bad on a line stunting drill Saturday morning he received a high-five from the team’s D-line coach and teammates…..

ILBer Channing Crowder did not participate in team drills but did do some 7-on-7s with the starters…..

To correct myself, yesterday I said CB Will Allen gave up a few passes while manning the slot in the afternoon session. Allen, who sat out Saturday morning’s work, pointed out he allowed those passes because he was playing ZONE coverage, which required him to release his receiver.

No matter what he says, I still don’t think he’s himself considering I’ve only seen Will Allen dominate in practice the past three seasons…..

Dolphins RBs Kory Sheets and Tristan Davis are working as possible kickoff returners. Both exhibited decent speed. Sheets potentially has an extra gear. He told me he’s been closed in the high 4.3’s in the 40. Considering how fast he can get the edges of a defense, I believe him…..

Dolphins OLBer Erik Walden ran down Patrick Cobbs on a Wildcat play for what would have resulted in about a 5-yard loss. This is the year Walden has to do more than bust heads on special teams to make the 53-man roster. As for Cobbs, he’s resumed his role as the backup triggerman…..

Dolphins QB Tyler Thigpen had an impressive Friday morning session, but had a lackluster Saturday morning session. However, Sparano praised Thigpen and said he has a Tony Romo-like of intangible to him that allows him to extend plays…..

FS Reshad Jones no longer has his right knee in a compression sleeve. I’ll be watching for any limping the rest of this weekend.

O – up above you mention the top skill need that is constantly brought up when it comes to Henne — the ability to put touch on his passes. What better way to develop that than hitting RBs after play fakes as they pop through the D-Line or scoot wide and then up?

I have no idea whether that is what is going on, but if a coach wanted him to learn how to throw a catchable ball to his receivers in stride it would be a great way to go about it.

Omar, maybe he is throwing dump down passes because THOSE are the ones you need touch on. Last year he was knocking the WE’s & RB’s off their feet in the first 10 yds!! sooooo, maybe he’s working on that? How’s the touch on those dump offs?

Trust me, Omar knows what he’s talking about. He just doesn’t “toot his horn” after being correct. He’s like Barry Sanders in that one should “act like you’ve been in the endzone before”.

Omar,

I totally agree with you about Henne (in case you missed my post on the last story). I just hope it’s being done on purpose and not a sign of being gun-shy. DEFINATELY keep an eye on this, and keep up the great reporting, man (Mike too)!

OMAR , Pat white has gained 18 pounds SINCE BEING DRAFTED while lowering his body fat. White has gained 8-9 pounds SINCE THE SEASON ENDED !!. Please get it right next time. You’re a liittle off my friend.

Yeah! How about those 10 yard lasers of last year to the RBs!!! Ouch! I think you are likely right, but on those 7 on 7’s, Henne should have taken some shots downfield. It’s probably nothing, but like Omar, red flags went off in my head. It IS something to watch to see if this is the “new” Henne in trying to limit interceptions.

M13 , thanks for the kudos on the celtics. Don’t worry about henne and the long ball. No marshall and it’s only freaking may minicamp !!. Wake will be in every passing situation now that both porter and taylor are gone. Wake will be on the field plenty my good freind. Any lans for the holiday weekend ??

Yes, I’m about to go to a block party with my buds; good food, good times, and lots of hot looking females! I wish I had your dog for the occasion! Tomorrow is a cookout/house party at my place, and Monday is my time to relax with my family.

You?

And if you don’t mind, could you Fed-EX your puppy to me ASAP! I’ll have her back by morning!!!

i disagree, i was talking baseball saying how the marlins have absolutely crushed the mets this year, was personally attacked for that? i kept it ball and he had nothing to come back with so in his pea brain little head he decided to get personal? i should be able to say anything about the worthless mets and he can say anything about the up and coming marlins without getting personal. the reason for his actions is he’s not smart enough to debate this topic.

Does Dontrelle Willis still pitch for you? I more or less gave up on following baseball after ‘07. I check into MLB.com to check in on league leaders and career stats, but that’s about it. I’m a nomad without a real “team” to root for, thanks to F/A. I just hope the NFL doesn’t go the way of MLB.

Marlins fraud , do you mean sharp as a tool like when you thought starks and torbor were already here from the previous regime and before parcells took over or when you have the marlins ahead of the mets because of head to head tiebraker when the mets have a bette record ?? Are you that sharp tool ?? You’re a clueless pea brain !! now go back under the rock you crawled out from , BOWLING BALL !! You’re a real genious !! LMFAO !!!

M13 . you got as far as the puppy is concerned. I’m working today and about to work out right now. I’m going out tonight ( watch a little UFC Fight first ) , going out on a boat tommorrow and a little Barq on monday. I’ll check you out later.

As far as Will Allen is concerned, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He may not look like himself, but perhaps Nolan’s trying some new things out on defense before we go full speed. New defense, new system.

I hope he returns to at least 90 percent by the beginning of the season.

Thanks for the info Omar;
I also wouldnt make to much of the checkdowns this early into the OTAs, like you pointed out he might just be taking what the D is giving… But all the while it will be extremely valuable come the season. After all hes gotta have a timing and rhythm with the RBs just as well as the WRs… No better time to work on that than while our receiving Corps is not yet 100%
GO PHINS!!!

Well Carlito, even though we are still troubled over the FS issue it is at least nice to he we have someone stepping up at SS and with Y.Bells career winding down let us hope that this guy is the real deal.
How about this perfect game going on here, too bad its going the wrong way…
GO PHINS!!!

Coghlin got rung up a couple of times on balls, and friggin Maybin error. Had he made that catch would have changed the whole complexity of that game. we could have gone into the late innings tied 0-0 and they might have neede to pinch hit fo that guy at some point… Oh well its is what it is and im glad I wittnessed that even though it was on us…
GO MARLINS!!!

Calm down Ray its May;
Remember a week and a half ago when we where hot and you guys where dropping game after game? I was ready to collect.
Anyway I think we are going to go down 1 further tomorrow when we face Moyer the old guy, He kills us every time I ever watched, but we’ll be back and you guys will lose plenty more along the way…
GO MARLINS!!!

Ray Im right there with you;
Baseball is fun but lets not get all Jet Fan over it… Now if it was football the bet would be at least a keg, Im glad we are on the same side there. Let us both commiserate at the end of the season when one of us pays up but the Phillies have won the division…
GO PHINS!!!

Omar its funny you say henne hasn;t been throwing deep much but yesterday sparano said that he’s been hitting the over under passes which are more chunk yards regularly. It seems like he’s been hitting the deeper passes accordinf to sparano.

I’m just keeping it real.
Just like ::::: Everybody here says we have a better LBers and Defense then last year.
In my opinion, we don’t.!! Maybe a few years down the line.

You can’t replace Jason Taylor!!!!
And J. Porter!!
Some of these guys think Misi is an upgrade over JT!!!
Most of them didn’t know who Misi was until they looked him up.

I look at it like this:::
JT: 7 sacks
JP: 9 sacks
Starks: 7 sacks
That’s 23 sacks we’ve lost!!! Over half of the 44 the whole team had last year. I’m including Starks because he is moved from his “natural” spot at DE (where he lit it up last year) and moved him to NT, where he won’t get half of the sacks he had last year. That’s not what a NT does.

So, how is this team better without JT & JP???
It’s not!!!
And I know people ate pissed with JT goingbto the Yets.
I’m pissed off at the FO of the Dolphins to leave JT no other choice!!!!
The whole situation sucks!!! But it’s BP’s fault, not JTs!
But, we must move on.
Without a solid FS or NT!!!!!!!!
And a major DOWNGRADE at OLB!!!!!!

I wish we would have addressed these issues at the draft, but they didn’t!!!
Could have got guys like: Earl, Morgan, DW

Or if they traded down and got Odrick::::
They still good have addressed all these problem positions..
They could have gotten FS Major Wright in the 3rd.
Cam Thomas or Cody for NT.

I still will always compare MISI vs. KINDLE.
which Kindle would have been great value in the 2nd round.

BUT, ITS OVER NOW, and we must move on!!!

But, I can tell you 2 things::::
1. This years defense isn’t much or at all better then last years.
2. MISI ISNT AN UPGRADE OVER JASON TAYLOR!!!!!

The draft sucked..BUT with new guys DANSBY and MARSHALL will help out tremendously!!!

AND HENNE MUST TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!!!
He has all the tools around him to succeed::
1. A Great O-Line
2. 2 ProBowl RBs in Ronnie & Ricky
3. And finally a true #1WR in Brandon Marshall

After everything that happened this offseason::::
The Most IMPORTANT player who must perform to win the Division or atleast make the stiffs via Wildcard is:::: QB CHAD HENNE
Chad Henne must prove he’s a NFL QB this year!!!

Make it or Break it, it’s Do or Die for Henne this year.
2010 will be the most important years of young Chad Henne’s life!!!

Everybody is a G.M. I’m so tired of reading that all you experts know exactly how these rookies will play, every guy we drafted was a “miss”, we should have picked this guy or that guy,we should have kept Peezy and J.T..BLAH,BLAH,BLAH…. Exactly how many years experience do YOU have as a G.M.? AH, I THOUGHT SO! How about have some faith in your teams choices,and root for the guys we DID pick?

PEEZY IS WASHED UP ! and with the defense we were running last year , a rookie could of stepped in and got as many sacks as peezy ! what else did we ask him to do ? he couldn’t even a sack when we needed him 2 ! he is to slow now and this will be his last year after he really stinks it up with the cards , he will retire after no team wants his services and the cards cut him … as for JT it would of been nice to keep him and let him retire as a fin but COME ON MAN ! We have no place for him on this team anymore , and his leadership last season was nonexistent ! we had to get J. Ferg to help the other L/B cause JT didn’t seem to know how to do it anymore …. and believe me JT isn’t the only guy in the world that can get sacks for miami ! we were doing it before he got here and we will do it after , if truth be told we where a much better sack defense the year JT wasn’t on the team ! so grow up and learn to move on , change happens , it’s for the better you’ll see .

Sorry for the long post.
I’ve been trying to shorten them, but had to get this off my chest.
Jason Taylor is a Dolphin Great!!! How easily people forget his 128 sacks he delivered fir the Miami Dolphins.
And it’s not his fault he is a stinking Jet.
It’s the Front Office’s fault.
I know we need to get younger, but it wouldn’t have hurt to keep him for his final year or two. I think he can still deliver.
And we NOW have no leaders on this team!!!

That’s 127.5 sacks in his 12 years with the Phins!!!
-3.5 for skins, that’s 124 sacks in 12 years!!!
That’s averaging over 10 sacks a year!!!!! Come on!!!
Like I said, you CAN’T replace Jason Taylor!!!

Oh yeh, Sparano losing 30 lbs??
We even beat the Jets at losing weights by coaches.
And Sparano did it the natural way (stress)
The Jets FatBoy Rex had to get his stomach stapled!

Anyway, I wish they would have kept JT for his final year or so.
He is a Hall of Famer!
And wish him the best (except for the 2 games against us)

AND, JT is gone! He was a shell of his former self,and just like when he was at Washington, I’ll bet he doesn’t finish the season healthy. I love JT too, but no matter what the Dolphins did or didn’t do, he’s the ENEMY now!
And personally,anyone wearing “PUKE GREEN” I ROOT AGAINST!
GO FINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And how long have you been a GM.???
BTW, JTs production was down in Wash. because he didn’t play his “natural” DE-Hybrid OLB position. He played on the opposite side of the field, rather then the side he’s played for a dozen years.
Hey, know what your talking about before writing it down!!

Now, to the rest of you guys;
Goodnight (or actually good morning)
Going to bed..

Unless my eyes get opened by the start of the season. I still see Dolphins QB Tyler Thigpen as being a better option at QB than Chad Henne. As long as we win this year, I’ll be happy, but we better make the playoffs again and go deeper in them!

If Wake doesn’t get at least half of the defensive snaps this year it’ll be a terrible waste of talent. He may be a bit raw, and maybe he isn’t great yet at setting the edge or in coverage, but he is the most explosive and disruptive defender we have. I believe Nolan has the knowledge of just how to use Wake, much the same way he used Dummerville at Denver. Just let him get after the passer most of the time. The guy had 5.5 sacks last year and an incredible 20 hurries in very limited duty. It doesn’t take much imagination to see this guy as a 12-15 sack guy with more playing time. Let’s give him every opportunity to prove what kind of an impact he can make. I actually believe we made a mistake sticking with Porter and JT as long as we did last year. Porter, in particular was terrible. He didn’t play the run at all, couldn’t cover or tackle anybody and the majority of his sacks were of the inconsequential variety. You know, sacks sometimes are the most misleading stat in the game. Porter and JT combined for 16 last year and I can’t remember more than 2 or 3 that really ade any difference in a game. Yet a play that really stands out to me was when Cam Wake pressured Tom Brady into that game ending interception to Crowder in our big win over NE. So, it’s really WHEN you make the big play defensively that really counts, and I saw Wake get big pressures time after time. Keep an eye on him.

Hey Omar, Not to stirr anything but…what’s your over/under for games played before Thigpen becomes the starter this year?

You are absolutely correct, 7 on 7 is not a check down drill…coaching for over 20 years…I can tell you that is not the drill to practice check downs, you do that in blitz recognition drills.

Henne is a nice, solid, stable QB, as far as the “it” factor, he has none.

I say Thigpen gets inserted before the 10th game of the season as Henne hits a wall, takes sacks, and gets picked too often for this regime.

Searching for a late season spark, Sparano shakes things up and puts in Thigpen who makes plays and opens the O up.

Just sayin..

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About the author

OMAR KELLY was unsuccessful at achieving his childhood dream to become a super hero, so he figured he'd do the next best thing and become a journalist who fights against injustice, and searches for truth. After being bored to death reporting news and covering politics, he switched to sports.
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IZZY GOULD joined the Sun Sentinel in Feb. 2012 as a Senior Sports Reporter on the Miami Dolphins beat. He came to South Florida fresh off covering the University of Alabama football program, including its 2011 national championship team. More